Time is Not Linear
Lucina and the other children are split apart further than they could have imagined, but they still do their damnest to make a good timeline.
Lucina and Laurent are the only ones who make it - Laurent is still thrust five years prior to Chrom and Robin finding each other, ans he hides in the desert, and Lucina emerges as Marth with the Risen invasion.
But the pair begin to see traces of their friends in an already altered timeline.
Cynthia was flung far into the past, further than the rise of the Grimleal, but after Grima's released. To the current citizens of Ylisse and surrounding kingdoms, she is a fable.
Oh, she hunted for the dark dragon, to find who he was ensnaring. She never did, but she was remembered fondly through song and story, and she was a tale of hope to sleeping children.
Inigo landed in Valm a couple of decades before Lucina lands in the past. Ylisse has not invaded Plegia - this invasion is still a few years away - and Valm has not yet been re-consolidated under the conqueror Walhart.
Inigo finds his way into Walhart's inner circle, creating a Valm that is strong but not on a tenuous thread of fracturing and being blinded by the Grimleal. Inigo had Walhart's ear - Walhart knows Validar is a threat who is bringing Grima back.
The Grimleal murdered Inigo a couple years before Lucina landed. Laurent is distraught they missed him, because Laurent could have tried to find any others (and gods, his feelings get worse when they discover the fates of other comrades).
But Inigo created a Walhart willing to be an ally to Ylisse, to Chrom and Robin, in the shadow of a coming monster.
But there are more travelers, more children missing. Where have they gone?
Not all were flung far enough into the past to be on the same path as Lucina. Lucina barely made it to the right timeline, because their lives have splintered the coming future.
Owain landed in a peaceful Ylisse, where he is but a baby without dreams of heroism. He takes the name Odin, and bears the burden of prophecy.
The Grimleal start tearing apart the world with Risen and their workings to fully revive Grima, but there is a hero who knows what they want. A hero who will do anything to prevent the dark future.
His story branches on its own. He is alone. He never finds his family and comrades - and they never learn he is the past and the future. Odin is a name remembered forever when the ashes settle and flowers grow again, however.
Yarne is flung far enough back that there are other Taguel, and he has a choice. He could join them, and possibly die when his mother is a sole survivor of a genocide. It could be peaceful for a time. Or he could hide with his head in the sand, away from Taguel and people. This is a crueler time to be a Taguel, after all.
Yarne could also decide to save his people. He could be brave like his friends have encouraged him to be. He could do it - for the honor of Taguel, for his own pride, and to show his mother long gone he can be a brave rabbit boy.
Lucina and Laurent are dancing around Ylisse in preparation to fight Grima, and Valm has sworn to fight the Grimleal on Ylisse’s - Chrom and co’s - side when a small but mighty army appears made entirely of rabbit Taguel. Yarne could not save his mother’s nest, and Panne had believed she was alone in the world, but Yarne emerges a man leading an army of Taguel ready to defend the Exalt with their lives.
Yarne weeps when he sees Laurent and Lucina, and they embrace him. There is still a chance to find their other friends - they can do it together.
They can kill Grima once and for all.
Morgan appears, amnesiac and from another, darker timeline. They join the fight, and Robin begins to plan how to end Grima once and for all. Robin may also be amnesiac, but they know in their bones they are the key to Grima’s awakening and Grima’s slumber. Even if it is just one timeline, one place in the greater universe, Robin could turn the key the other way.
(In secret, Naga confirms Robin’s musings, and they begin to plot behind Chrom’s back when the fire emblem is restored to glory).
When Grima revives with the soul of a future Robin, Lucina thinks the fight is over. When the future Robin releases three thralls to keep the army grounded during Grima’s flight, Lucina knows they have lost.
Kjelle, Gerome, and Severa are bound to Grima now. Chrom and Robin, and a select entourage go to fight Grima. Lucina leads the fight against her thralled friends, even as it breaks her heart.
Severa is the first brought down by Lucina’s sword. There is a moment of lucidity. Lucina had been convincing herself that they were Risen, they were dead and gone.
But they’re not, and Lucina just killed her friend.
“Thank you,” Severa sighs as she dies. Lucina stops in the fight.
What sort of future is worth doing this?
Kjelle is taken down in a pile of Taguel, and Yarne hears her last words. She begs to remembered for her strength, for her mother to know she didn’t choose this. Yarne holds her as she dies as herself.
Gerome goes to strike down Lucina, when Laurent brings him down with wind magic. Bones crack and shatter. Gerome’s body is tangled with Minerva the wyvern’s. His last words are not heard, but his face isn’t twisted in the pain Laurent would have expected for such a violent crash.
It is not peaceful but there is almost a satisfaction there. A release.
Grima falls from the sky. Robin turns to ash on the wind. The Grimleal fall apart.
Chrom, shoulders heavy, leads the world into a new era of light.
Yarne takes his new Taguel family and disappears into the woods. His mother and her human lover follow.
Laurent and Lucina disappear from the public eye, and then the historical records.
Nah reappears generations later to make sure history remembers what they sacrificed to bring down a monster once and for all. And then she disappears again, fading into her own myth.
Brady and Noire never fall out of the time stream. They clasped hands, and they are desperately afraid to let go. It may release them back into existence, or they will be alone in the endless fall.
They fall, and fall, and fall.
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Check out my previous post, Macedon’s Twist of Fate, if you like these “what if” scenarios
** DO NOT USE AI ON MY WORKS **
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